Reminding my little corner of the world why women as women are beautiful, good and oh so very necessary to the success of The Dance.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

NEWSFLASH: Feminists Lie About God

Feminist and self-proclaimed former Christian Paula Kirby created quite a splash with her recent declaration criticizing God's commandments in Holy Scripture as being "Iron Age prejudices" and that the "Abrahamic religions fear women". She then libels Christians of all stripes (from the liberal ones who try to deny St. Paul really wrote what he wrote to the orthodox Christian believer who embraces those 'Iron Age prejudices' as God's merciful gift to us) by lumping them in with the more extreme expressions of Islam which go about lopping bits off little girls without benefit of consent or anesthetic. In short, she presents a hideously deformed and misinformed straw creature in order to take a slap at God. She is angry and wants to make sure everyone knows it.

Along with Kirby, the worst president in history is, once again, exhibiting his talent for biblical revisionism and making news for his pronouncements on religion and how wrong his fellow SBCers are wrong about most things. Carter has been quoted recently as saying, "In Christian communities . . . there is gross discrimination against women . . . But, as you know, [in] the Catholic church they practically worship the Virgin Mary, but won't let a woman be a priest." Which just goes to show you Carter understands about as much about Catholicism as he does his own particular brand of Christianity. Yet you have to shake your head in wonder at the spectacle of a self-professed Christian, who has a long record of teaching Sunday School, criticizing Christianity for not falling in line with current U.S. law (EEOC, Title IX, etc.) and contemporary concepts of "equality" and "justice".

We might find more excuse for Kirby who has had the honesty to reject Christianity. But Mr. Carter has very little excuse. Religious feminists such as he and Mrs. Frank James have embraced the twin lies that the world understands equality better than did (and still does, I imagine!) St. Paul -- and -- that the paradox which lies at the heart of Christian anthropology is no paradox at all but an inescapable contradiction which must absolutely be denied. Carter shows us not so much what it is possible for a "bible-believing" Christian to promote as he does the folly of promoting someone as such simply because he proclaims himself to be such. At least on this point, Carter doesn't believe the Bible so much as he does the United Nations and their sense of justice and equality.

So then we come to Mrs. Frank James who casts herself as her husband's favorite theologian and we have to wonder why she thinks Kirby's acid-laden screed should make Christians squirm? Much less why Kirby's "questions" should be taken seriously. Really? We are supposed to take seriously someone who equates submission with female genital mutilation? Sorry, but angry screeds and tired old canards don't make me squirm or give the least hint of discomfort. Contra James, the questions are indeed dishonest and manufactured and therefore "unfair".

But, then again, James not only misinterprets Holy Scripture, she libels the countess numbers of Christians who have risked their lives as well as given their meagre fortunes to rescue those in danger. Christianity has improved the lives of women since the first years of the Church, when they constituted a tiny and persecuted sect in the great roman empire. Back then, we Christians were rescuing the baby girls pagan families would leave out to die of exposure. We've done it all along, then and today, when some of the most privileged Christians among us risk their lives in service to the persecuted. We've always been there to rescue the persecuted and give comfort to the afflicted.

So lets stop lying about Christianity and cowering before angry feminists. Let's stop lying about the questions. It's not "IF" women are to join with men in the work. It's HOW we are to do go about it. And let's stop denying those who have trod these paths before us a place in the conversation. Let's enjoin the most obscure and neglected of all people to come to the conversation table - if we are to take seriously the angry screeds of feminists, let us also not neglect to listen to the voices of those who have gone before us simply because they are no longer walking this earth with us.

1 comment:

I saw the Paula Kirby article and was greatly distressed by it. I know deep in my heart how weak her arguments are and how twisted the interpratations of Scripture and Christian tradition, but I also know too many people who might actually be affected by reading the article. I pray for them, and I cannot stop praying for a day when this country would turn away from allowing this sort of writing to be accepted as a good essay on the Christian faith suitable for a newspaper's "Religion" section.